Spinal injury question
 

Very close firend of ours was injured in a car accident yesterday. She's 19 years old, and was a passenger in a Camry. Other vehicle ran a red light and broadsided her in the passenger door. She has three broken vertebrae, C3, C4, and C5, but no spinal cord injury is apparent - she can move all her limbs.

Can anyone advise what she's in for regarding recovery?

Thanks.

My daughter had one broken vertebrae from her accident and she walked out the hospital in a week. The answer depends on a lot of things and should be answered by a doc.

I hope all works out for you guys.

If there is truely no cord injury she should do fine. They will need to evaluate the spinal fractures - if stable a collar for fixation and a couple of months healing, then physical therapy and she will be fine. If the fractures are unstable- meaning there is still risk of cord injury- some type of surgical fusion might be needed. Complex topic which her docs will have to work out. Again, no neurologic injury- no cord injury- and she should do fine. They can't fix an injured spinal cord, they can fix or fuse broken bones, ligaments, etc. We wish you luck.

It is amazing what they can do with broken vertebre's, when I had my back surgery they were showing me some of the parts they might use.

She will be down for a little while, but will be fine in the end, tell her not to push the recovery.

Michael

gchappel pretty much said it all... as long as there's no neurological deficit, the broken bones ought to be able to heal appropriately. Whether that requires surgery on some/all of the vertebrae or not is very fact (and surgeon-opinion) dependent.

I fractured C6 in May '03, in a manner that has a 95% chance of quadriplegia. I got lucky, tho. The surgeon actually advised against a fusion or any invasive process and very strongly suggested a halo, which I wore for 3 months, followed by a month in a hard collar.
I was out of hospital in 2 1/2 days after the accident, looking like a channel marker buoy.

She'll probably be told no caffeine or nicotine while recovering, so if she's a two-pack-a-day espresso junkie, at least she'll have quality meds to help her through the first few days of withdrawal.

If she winds up in a halo, lemme know -- I'll tell you whatever pointers I can about surviving/adjusting to life in a cervical cast.

JP

I broke C2 in a car accident. It was a compression break so it was a "clean" break. I had to wear a brace called a Miami J. I was just a plasitic collar with padding on the inside. I had to wear it for 3 months. Never went to physical thearpy though it was recommended. My neck was as little as my arm when I finally took it off. Hope she does as well as I did.

Terry - You got lucky w/ a C2 break -- that can pretty easily be lights out, if I remember correctly.

The last month of my sentence was in the Miami J as well -- it was like house arrest b/c I could move my head very slightly, which after 3 months of practical immobility, allowed some range of motion/muscle to build up. Plus, they gave me a softer collar I could change into (while prone) to shower. DAMN after 3 months in the halo showers felt great!

I skipped PT too. When I got the word I was OK ("go forth and breakdance" or something to that effect) I pitched the J in the backseat and only wore it a couple of times to sleep when my neck was tired, so as not to unintentionally strain it rolling over or what-have-you.

I'm no doc, but 90+% of this kind of injury is just surviving the trauma w/o spinal cord damage. Having done that, your body should heal... over time. The doc's will take all the credit for your body doing its job, of course. :D

JP

there may be some swelling after a couple of days, which may resolve after a couple more days. wires, screws. there may be future degenerative changes over the next few years that will cause long term problems. if it broke bones, imagine what it did to the discs and nerve roots, and possible concussion.

friends don't let friends drive camrys.

where was her head at the time of impact? smily!!

Thanks to all for your posts. Great news - She's coming home today. Docs said no surgery required, just rest and recouperate. They even removed the neckbrace. Since they determined no surgery was needed, she finally got to eat last night and was very happy about that. Appears that she really dodged a bullet. Thanks for your concerns.

Yeow -- 3 broken neck bones and no immobilization? As I said, I'm no doc, but that seems strange to me.

When my doc said "halo" (after the interns had told me hard collar 12 hours earlier -- long long story) he said that he'd be concerned about my being in "only" a hard collar b/c even though the bone had stabilized, any jolt could be lights out. Getting rear-ended in a car, stumbling, even a Category 5 Sneeze might've done it.

But, again, I'm no MD, so pay me no mind. Best of luck on your friend's recovery.

JP